mrbeate wrote:Not to mention Xu Huang's order were just to repel Guan Yu. Xu Huang just had an army of recruits who would have possible deserted or rebelled if put into the field too long. And yes, his inferior numbers were not enough to go on besieging cities. It is pretty obvious that to besiege a city, you must have superior numbers then the defense, and enough men to surround the city. Xu Huang did not have this.

In the novel, I think Zhuge Liang (or LGZ putting words in his mouth) estimated that the attacking force needed 3x the defending force to launch a successful seige

mrbeate wrote:Not to mention Xu Huang's order were just to repel Guan Yu. Xu Huang just had an army of recruits who would have possible deserted or rebelled if put into the field too long. And yes, his inferior numbers were not enough to go on besieging cities. It is pretty obvious that to besiege a city, you must have superior numbers then the defense, and enough men to surround the city. Xu Huang did not have this.

In the novel, I think Zhuge Liang (or LGZ putting words in his mouth) estimated that the attacking force needed 3x the defending force to launch a successful seige

Are you sure this isn't from playing too much Civilization?

I've never played it, sorry - I just recall the quote

'Never was anything great achieved without danger.' - Niccolo Machiavelli

mrbeate wrote:Not to mention Xu Huang's order were just to repel Guan Yu. Xu Huang just had an army of recruits who would have possible deserted or rebelled if put into the field too long. And yes, his inferior numbers were not enough to go on besieging cities. It is pretty obvious that to besiege a city, you must have superior numbers then the defense, and enough men to surround the city. Xu Huang did not have this.

Actually Xu Huang's forces were initially an army of recruits. After arriving and setting up camp he was reinforced twice before actually attacking. Thus we have no idea how numerous or strong his force was by the time he actually started fighting.

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